Widely acclaimed as the biggest food fight in the world, La Tomatina is something synonymous with Spain. Organized every year on the last Wednesday of August, it is a freak festival where people throw tomatoes at each other to celebrate a week long gala of music, parades, dancing, and fireworks.
Though there is a debate on the origin of the event, it has captured the imagination of the world community as a queer and unique festival and people are curious about it.
On the day of the fight, hundreds of trucks ferry the tomatoes to the center of the town, Plaza del Pueblo. The chaotic fight begins at 11am and continues till 1pm. During that period of two hours, the supply of tomatoes keeps coming on thereby adding fuel to the madness of the participants.
Though, apparently reckless, La Tomatina is bound by certain rules like using only smashed tomatoes to avoid any injury, no bottles or other objects can be brought for safety reasons, no T-shirts allowed and most of all, paying due attention to the trucks that keeps roaming around.
Every year thousands of people crowd the streets of Bunol to be a part of La Tomatina and experience something that they used to imagine in the wildest fantasies. Being a small town with a population of merely over 9000, Bunol lacks in accommodating that huge number of tourists. As a result, the nearby town of Valencia, just 38km to Bunol, provides the required hotels and resorts.